Tech Startup Working on Building a Robot That Uses AI-Powered ‘Brain’
Artificial intelligence and robotics startup Physical Intelligence is working on bringing AI to the physical world through a robot with a brain.
Over the past 15 years or so, AI systems that work entirely in software have grown far more sophisticated than their moving counterparts. Non-AI-powered robots, meanwhile, can easily manufacture anything in factories and clean up after people at home but only carry out a relatively small range of tasks compared to the increasingly general nature of AI-powered chatbots.
In a move to bridge the gap between artificial intelligence and the physical world, Physical Intelligence has emerged with $70 million in seed funding. The company, founded by a team of renowned robotics and AI experts, aims to develop foundation models and learning algorithmsthat can power a wide range of robots and physically-actuated devices.
The massive investment – from big names including OpenAI and Sequoia Capital – reflects the immense potential the financial world see in Physical Intelligence’s vision to create a universal robot model that can bring AI to the physical world and enable other kinds of robots to perform tasks across various applications.
(Related: Tech firms developing and deploying AI that can deceptively MIMIC HUMAN BEHAVIOR.)
Formed this year by a team of robotics and AI experts, the company plans to create software that can add high-level intelligence to a wide variety of robots and machines. Or, as co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Karol Hausman puts it in Physical Intelligence’s first public interview since founding the company: “We aim to bring AI to the physical world with a universal model that can power any robot or any physical device basically for any application.”
Physical Intelligence’s thesis is that the time is right for a new approach to building robotics AI models. The company looks to merge the techniques used to build language models with its own techniques for controlling and instructing machines. The end goal would be to create an AI that works as a type of general-purpose robotics system.
Physical Intelligence among a growing number of startups working on general robotics
Hausman spent the last few years as a scientist working on robotics at Google. His fellow co-founders include Sergey Levine, who has done pioneering robotics work as a professor at the University of California, Berkeley; Chelsea Finn, a professor at Stanford University; Brian Ichter, a former Google research scientist; and Lachy Groom, a former executive at the payments company Stripe and prominent tech investor.
Physical Intelligence wants to develop software that can be applied across many types of robotics. To do this, it has set to work creating its own AI model designed to bring basic human abilities to machines.
“I think it’s really cool what people are building with humanoids,” Groom said. “But what fundamentally makes humans interesting is the brain, not our hardware. We are the ultimate generalists.”
Efforts to improve the software that powers robots have been going on for decades. Notably, a company called Willow Garage, formed in 2006, spent several years trying to build a type of general-purpose software that could be shared across robots and give them a unified set of basic functions. While its software was picked up by several companies and robotics developers, Willow Garage’s work did not lead to a huge leap forward in robotic intelligence, and the company wound down its operations in 2014.
Other companies like Rethink Robotics tried to build systems that could learn to do jobs by copying movements shown to them by humans. Some startups have recently implemented AI that uses repetition to teach robotic arms to pick up objects and perform tasks similar to those done by humans in warehouses.
Other companies have begun building androids designed to mimic human movements. One of these startups, Figure AI, was able to raise $675 million to help it build robots to work in logistics and manufacturing facilities. Notable investors include Jeff Bezos, Microsoft, OpenAI and Nvidia.
Physical Intelligence faces stiff competition from some of these companies, especially Figure AI and electric vehicle giant Tesla. They are also either researching or manufacturing androids and working on general-purpose robotics software.
“Realistically, I think we are going to need a long and very serious research effort to make this happen,” says Levine. “But there are enough signs that the biggest obstacles to use robots in the real world are now solvable.”
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WAR ON MEN: Pearl Davis Says Attack on Fathers is Causing The Breakdown of Society
Guest Hosts of the Alex Jones Show, Anthony Rubin and Carlos Arellano, interviewed Pearl Davis regarding the ongoing cultural war against males during the Monday broadcast.
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In Russia Mass Deportations of Muslim Migrants Surge After Moscow Terror Attack
There have been widespread reports of mass deportations of Muslim migrants from Russia in the wake of the March 22 terror attack on the Crocus City Hall venue in a Moscow suburb which killed at least 140 people and left hundreds more wounded and injured.
This trend is said to be the result of a significant uptick in raids by authorities on apartments and dorm complexes known to house Central Asian migrants, amid concerns that Islamic radicals could carry out more attacks.
President Vladimir Putin has put blame on Islamic extremists for the major attack which involved four gunmen planting explosives and randomly shooting into crowds; however, he and Kremlin officials also believe the men had assistance from Ukraine or possibly US or other foreign intelligence.
The alleged gunmen, who reportedly tried to escape across the Ukrainian border, are all Tajik nationals. A number of other foreigners have also been arrested in the days after the attack. Washington has said ISIS-K was behind it, while condemning Moscow’s allegations that the US or Ukraine could have had something to do with it.
The regional pro-opposition outlet Meduza hassaid that in the last week of March, St. Petersburg courts “received 584 cases of administrative offenses in connection with non-compliance with migration legislation.”
The report indicated that at least 418 foreigners were then ordered to go to special holding facilities to await expulsion from the country. “Another 48 people must pay a fine and leave the Russian Federation on their own,” Meduza wrote.
In Russia, after the Crocus City Hall mass murder of 143 people by Tajik Muslims, the mass deportations have begun.
— David Atherton (@DaveAtherton20) April 1, 2024
The airport is jammed packed. pic.twitter.com/VRIlNFplXa
An organization of human right lawyers who work in Russia, Perviy Otdel, observed in a statement Friday that in the St. Petersburg region, “Temporary detention centers for foreign citizens are packed, surrounded by special vehicles and buses heading to the airport.”
The Amsterdam-based Moscow Times linked the surge in deportations to the Crocus City Hall terror attack:
The countries where the migrants were being sent to were not specified, though it is known that labor migrants in Russia mostly hail from poor Central Asian countries.
Bailiffs reportedly refer to St. Petersburg’s mass deportations as “Operation Anti-Migrant,” with raids targeting local hostels and apartments. Similar raids were reported in Moscow and other Russian cities.
Anti-immigrant sentiment surged after four gunmen — who were later identified as Tajik nationals — stormed Crocus City Hall last Friday, killing 144 people and injuring 382 in the shooting and massive fire at the popular concert venue.
The backlash against Russia’s sizeable Tajik immigrant community is expected to grow. Recent years have seen over one million unemployed Tajiks enter Russia in search of work.
? Russia: Yesterday Vladimir Osechkin relayed info from FSB sources that an order for indiscriminate mass raids and repressions against Muslims came down in ‘response’ to the Crocus City Hall massacre. Today, the FSB made mass arrests at the Wildberries warehouse in Electrostal. pic.twitter.com/pjr5OkhECN
— Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) March 27, 2024
A separate Moscow Times report has found that “Between 2012 and 2018, over 2,000 Tajik citizens joined terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, making Tajikistan the third highest sender of foreign fighters to the war on a per capita basis.”
The report continues: “Most joined Islamic State, with some taking up key positions, including the group’s War Minister Gulmurod Halimov, who used to serve as head of Tajikistan’s OMON paramilitary police force.” This means Russia’s monitoring of and crackdown on this migrant community is likely only to grow from this point.
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Peruvian President Replaces Six Ministers After Police Raid Her Home
Peruvian President Dina Boluarte replaced six ministers on Monday after they resigned abruptly as she faces a corruption probe related to her ownership of luxury watches, media reported on Tuesday.
The resignations follow a probe launched into allegations of illicit enrichment by the Peruvian leader, who is being investigated over her high-end Rolex watches, as authorities suspect corruption.
Boluarte is being preliminarily investigated for possessing an undisclosed collection of luxury watches since she came to power in July 2021 as vice president and social inclusion minister, and then as president in December 2022.
Police and prosecutors gained entry to the president’s residence in Lima on Friday night with a sledgehammer in a raid authorized by the judiciary at the request of the attorney general’s office. Investigators were reportedly searching for evidence regarding the origin of at least three Rolex watches. Boluarte has denied the accusations and insists that she purchased the watches with her own money.
The cabinet reshuffle came as lawmakers from various parties, including Peru Libre to which Boluarte once belonged, submitted to parliament a request to remove the president from office for “permanent moral incapacity.”
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Interior Minister Victor Torres was among the six ministers who announced their resignation.
“I’m leaving in peace with my hands clean,” Torres told reporters, adding: “I am leaving because I asked the lady and she accepted.”While he claimed to have stepped down due to “family and health issues,” some media speculated that the resignation was meant as punishment for the weekend raids.
The five other cabinet ministers who resigned had held the ministries for women’s issues, education, rural development, production, and foreign trade. They reportedly voiced support for Boluarte, with one describing the raid on her home as “unnecessary”and “excessive.”
On Monday evening, the Peruvian leader named six new ministers, replacing roughly a third of her 19-person cabinet in a single day.
The slew of resignations has increased the volatility of Peru’s political landscape, which has seen six different presidents in merely eight years.
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Privacy Experts Warn The Public Against ‘Digital Enslavement’ as Amazon Launches New App For Pay-By-Palm Services
In the past, individuals had to physically visit a store equipped with Amazon One devices to register for the service. But on March 28, Amazon announced that first-time users of Amazon One pay-by-palm services can now sign up for it from the comfort of their homes or even while working by submitting a photo of their hand to Amazon servers.
Amazon has guaranteed users its convenience while promising retailers benefits such as expedited queues and a smoother in-store experience.
(Related: Amazon rolling out PAY-BY-PALM services as new payment tech at all Whole Foods Market stores.)
However, privacy experts argued that collecting the biometric data of its users would only allow Amazon to easily consolidate their personal information. This, in turn, could result in privacy breaches and even the misuse of sensitive data.
James Lindsay, the founder of New Discourses and author of works such as “Race Marxism” and “Social (In)justice,” explained on the X platform how the rollout of the Amazon One app aggressively promotes “digital enslavement” or “Digital Slave ID.”
In a series of tweets, Lindsay warned of a looming system where evil technocrats reduce data points, manipulate, and even control individuals to gain profit. He outlined the components of this hypothetical “digital cattle” system, including UBI, a social credit system linked to financial incentives and penalties, and an education system designed to perpetuate control.
“The oligarchs need [not only] enough information to know what their cattle need to keep functioning but also tons of information to know how to contour and control them into the ideal subjects and consumers their system needs to sustain itself,” he explained in one of his tweets.
Michael Rectenwald, a former professor at New York University and a prominent fellow at Hillsdale College, backed Lindsay’s claims. Rectenwald, an accomplished author of 12 books, warned the public against the seductive allure of convenience in the latest app rollout of Amazon.
“The threat of complete digital enslavement will come via offers of ‘convenience’ and ‘inclusion’ from the corporate appendages of the state—or what I have called ‘governmentalities’—such as Amazon and Google,” said Rectenwald.
More people and stores are blindly turning to cashless payments because of “promised convenience”
In a video published on May 7, Reclaim the Net revealed that big corporations like JPMorgan Chase, Amazon, Microsoft and Google are actively promoting and normalizing the use of biometric data, particularly facial and palm recognition, in payment transactions.
These companies claim that biometric payment systems offer unparalleled convenience and efficiency compared to traditional payment methods. Moreover, they also claim these could help reduce fraud and improve financial security.
This advocacy has turned cashless payments into a growing trend, with more and more people using them in recent years.
For instance, in 2023, coffee shop chain Starbucks teamed up with Amazon to launch the Amazon One system in selected stores in Edmonds, Washington State. The pilot of the Amazon One system will serve as a bellwether to determine whether older people will embrace the new technology. In 2018, the coffee shop chain also opened a cashless pilot store in the lobby of a Seattle-based office building to “evaluate customer response and garner employee feedback.”
Starbucks also tried Amazon Go, a checkout-free shopping experience, at concept stores in New York City for the same reason.
Still, privacy experts warn the public that biometric data is uniquely identifiable and immutable. Once captured, the data could be exploited beyond payment verification, such as by tracking individuals, identifying them in public spaces and profiling them for marketing purposes.
Head over to PrivacyWatch.news for more stories about the risks of biometric payment methods.
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Israel Deploys Facial Recognition Program, Utilizes Google Photos, in Gaza
The sweeping implementation of a facial recognition initiative is stirring controversy in the Gaza Strip, with the government of Israel reported to have utilized this technology to create a surreptitious database of Palestinian individuals. As disclosed by The Times, this utilization of biometric technology occurred without the informed consent or awareness of the Palestinian populace.
Following the incidents of October 7, Israeli intelligence put this program into motion with two key technological allies: an in-house tool fashioned by Corsight, a firm from Tel Aviv, and Google Photos. The operational goal was the identification of persons linked with Hamas.
The Israeli Defense Forces’ Unit 8200 stepped up surveillance post the October 7 attacks, scrutinizing Hamas’s social media videos, and security footage to identify potential targets. The Israeli military operatives also solicited help from detained Palestinians to identify Hamas affiliates from amongst their community members.
Bragging about its ability to identify individuals even with less than half of the face visible, Corsight became instrumental in Israel’s facial recognition endeavors. It used these photographs to develop a sophisticated tool of identification for Israeli enforcement officers in Gaza. The military further expanded this database by setting facial recognition-enabled checkpoints on primary roads used by Palestinians to flee south. An officer divulged to the Times that the aim was to create a “hit list” of active participants in the October 7th attack.
However, there have reportedly been instances when Corsight’s technology ended up misidentifying innocents as potential Hamas cohorts. Of note is the misidentification of Mosab Abu Toha, a Palestinian poet, who was apprehended at an Israeli checkpoint while attempting to travel to Egypt with his family. Abu Toha, according to the military’s system, was a wanted persona. Following a two-day duration of interrogation and abuse, he was summarily released back into Gaza sans an exoneration or explanation.
To bolster Corsight’s endeavors, the military has leveraged Google Photos – a freely available tool. Armed with a voluminous “known persons” database, intelligence officers are making use of Google’s photo search function to identify individuals, even when only a fraction of their facial features are discernible or visible.
Corsight and its investors have been overt in their desire to aid the Israeli military in the continuing strife in the Gaza Strip. Awz Ventures, the Canadian fund that spearheaded Corsight’s finance round of $5 million in 2020, echoed this intention openly. The Israeli military and Alexandria Ashkenazi, the fund’s founder and managing partner, envisaged a halt to what he termed “evil terrorists.”
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